Russian suppliers will have to provide financial compensation for their mistakes over contaminated oil, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday.
Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were suspended last month due to contamination, sending shockwaves through global oil markets.
“Russian suppliers made major business and operational mistakes… Russia and Russian firms have to respond to this financially. For as long as the situation isn’t clarified, we have reserve solutions,” Morawiecki said at a press conference in Warsaw.
Pipeline operator Transneft is set to compensate buyers for any proven losses.
Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski has requested urgent action from Russia to resume supplies of clean oil as quickly as possible, the ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry said Tchorzewski made the request “In the absence of reaction from Russian oil suppliers to Polish refineries’ request for a reliable schedule for the removal of contaminated oil from the entire pipeline by the Russian side and compensation for losses incurred from receiving contaminated oil.”
Operations at Polish refineries are continuing uninterrupted thanks to sea deliveries and the release of oil reserves by the Ministry of Energy, the ministry said.
